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Israeli social media exploded Wednesday and Thursday in reaction to a tweet by Benjamin Netanyahu, in which the prime minister attempted to shift focus from the findings of a state report on the country’s housing crisis to Iran’s nuclear program

Tech execs paid $245 to hear Hillary Clinton keynote a women’s tech conference in Silicon Valley Tuesday, but Clinton has as much to learn from her audience as they have to gain from her. As the former secretary of state prepares for a second presidential run, she’s hoping Silicon Valley will rub off on her – and fill her campaign coffers.

In the 1840s, after receiving his first telegram, then British foreign minister Lord Palmerston reportedly exclaimed “My God, this is the end of diplomacy!” Fast forward 170 years.(...) Diplomacy is not dead, but new messaging tools like Twitter are threatening to upend a tradition of carefully worded statecraft and protocol.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is facing an Indonesian social media backlash over his linking of $1 billion in tsunami aid to the mercy campaign for Bali Nine death-row inmates Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, with a campaign urging people to collect coins to return to Australia.

This week, the U.S. government announced preparations to beef up its online campaign against extremist groups, especially the one known as the Islamic State, ISIS, or ISIL. Social media — especially Twitter — has become a powerful tool for extremists looking to lure potential recruits into the organization.

Progressives who believe that dialogues, conversations, engagements, conferences and summits are keys to pacifying the world have a peculiar solemnity about using certain words that are potentially insensitive. This mentality is perhaps especially acute in digitally drenched people who believe that Twitter and other social media have the power to tame turbulent reality.

Richard Stengel, who left his job as managing editor of TIME magazine in 2013 to become Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in the Obama administration, said ISIS conquering land is an "opportunity" because "it's easier to combat people holding land and trying to government it than it is to combat people who are non-state actors."

The embittered battle against ISIS is making nations rethink how to approach social media as a weapon of war. Early this month, Britain announced its plans to form a battalion of "Facebook Warriors" in effort to battle ISIS's adept skills of recruiting through the platform, and also Twitter, YouTube, and other websites.